Norman Geisler, Open Theism, and Hegel’s Geist

One gets these Hegel headaches sometimes, and after a particularly long grapple with Phenomenology of Spirit, “Geist” was constantly on the tip of my tongue. It became a fast meme, culminating in “Geistliness,” so that when, in the aftermath of the Platinga lecture, we were thinking of other theologians to bother, and Norman Geisler came up, “Geistler” became an instant construction.

Thinking that we obviously needed to go and see Geisler, we asked the internet where to find him, and lo! he would be speaking not 45 minutes away from us in a few weeks.

Further research revealed something I had not realized about Dr. Geisler, that he had left the ETS because they would not kick out Clark Pinnock, an advocate of open theism. You can read all about it in Geisler’s own letter. Now, granted, this isn’t really that much of a scandal given that it was about eight years ago that this happened, but it was news to us, and we felt that this was a bit harsh. We felt that Norman Geisler needed to be more…open, to Open Theism. After some scrambling around, scribbled plans, shirt making, and rushed driving, we managed to both attend the conference that Geisler spoke at as well as get our picture with him. But, additionally, we managed to get THIS picture with him (Click to enlarge!):

Zachary Porcu, Norman Geisler, Andrew Cuff

And, thanks to zippers and buttons, none knew the message of our shirts, either before it was too late, or after.

Two points. First, I want to dedicate this trouble and time that we went through to Craig Boyd, who first took the time to painstakingly explain open theism to me when I was but a junior undergrad, and who humored us enough to sing Bob Dylan songs on the last day of class.

Second, to Dr. Geisler himself, for whom I have nothing but warm affection for. Your arguments got me through many difficult times in my youth and I hope you will take this as an opportunity to laugh about that narrow range of scholar jokes which (unfortunately!) not everyone can enjoy.

As has been noted in other places, if you want your own “be open to open theism” shirts, you will, unfortunately, have to make them yourself.